Fantôme De Noel | Brasserie Fantôme

Notes / Commercial Description:
This ever-evolving offering is said to be spiced with honey, caramel, black pepper, coriander and (per usual with Fantôme) a number of other special secret ingredients. A rich, dark-flavored beer with lots of deep-roasted chocolate malt, but still fairly dry, with a hint of sourness at the core. It is very spicy, with some winter spruce flavor in the bargain. The wild yeast sourness also adds to its welcoming character.

More User Reviews:

Fantôme de Noel pours a brilliant deep garnet with a ½” bone white finely bubbled foam cap. Yeasty aromas with a blend of fresh and overripe fruit waft up from the glass with hints of spice, dark sugars and alcohol. A spicy palate combines chocolate, fruit, spice, slightly over ripe fruit, toffee, with a slight alcohol sweetness. The Brettanomyces character is just coming on board with most impact on the texture producing a very fine, soft carbonation. The sweetness from the malt nicely balances the wild yeast tastes. It is effervescent, medium bodied, and has very smooth alcohol.

Appearance - This is a medium-brown in color with a good head and tons of floaties.

Smell - The mild funk is squared with a fairly sweet malt base that actually would be at home in a BSDA. The funk is moldy lemon with a bit of peppered vodka and light grassy herbs.

Taste - The lemon comes out more in the taste and there's an astringent radish flavor that I didn't pick up at the nose. The malty backbone is far off at this point. There's a light white wine character to the taste as well.

Mouthfeel - This is medium-bodied and a bit on the flat side.

Drinkability - This was enjoyable enough but not as substantial as I remember the 2002 and prior vintages.

750 bottle purchased from Riley's in Madison a year or so ago. This bottle is at least 2 years old and perhaps much more. It's hard to tell with Riley's and there are no best by or brew on dates on the label.

Drinkability: Easy to drink but somewhat dull. I've had better Noel in the past. This bottle could be a touch older than prime (please don't get on my case review national socialists. I've had 9 year-old Fantome that kicked ass so to me it is worth seeing if their beers can last. Noel might be one that cannot).

Another new Fantome bottle, another lottery ticket. Saw this sitting on a shelf in Toledo and felt like rolling the dice. Fantome de Noel pours a glowing ruby and brown color with translucent that only peaks through at the edges. Such a volatile head; big, bubbly, and growing with the power of a thousand suns, it has a gray-ish tint and takes its time settling to a collar.

I take a sniff and I don't love it. Not right away, at least. I guess I didn't what to expect, but I wasn't expecting such a spiced Belgian style ale, which is how each whiff makes it seem. Heavy yeast, bread, bubblegum, and mild banana sweetness, spiced with tons of coriander, clove, pepper, even a faint twinge of mint. There's probably not actually any mint in this beer, but c'mon, just lemme have this one.

The aroma doesn't get any better with some warmth and/or time, although it does grow on me a little bit more, besides the fact that it's spiced more along the lines of a winter warmer than a Belgian ale even. The first sip opens up to a bit more fruit than was available in the aroma; mild plums and grapes and pear skins, sitting on top of a huge, yeast blanket that screams with more bubblegum and clove.

Fantome wouldn't be anything without the funk, and on top of being a science experiment spiced beer, this sucker is funky as hell. Cheesecloth, wet cork, damp hay, and a back-end chalkiness that I'm not sure whether is a product of the yeast, the malt, the spices, or Dany accidentally knocked a bucket of sidewalk chalk into the brew kettle and said "fuck it".

Very spiced and very heavy with a booming clove, pepper, and yeast-ladden and bone dry finish. Medium bodied, lots of carbonation, though the body is a little to heavy to be effervescent, it's just a touch away from a cream mouth feel. Another strange brew from Fantome, one that I did not enjoy quite as much as the rest. It's decent, sure, but one of my least favorites of the bunch.

Poured a beautiful strawberry blonde colour. nicely clouded with a head that quickly dissipated.

Its bouquet was fruity; hints of cherry with some lovely but not offputting funk.

Taste: I dig this more that most typical saisons. It had a funk or tongue-hanging bitterness to it that also carried traces of cherry. Sourness was minimal, but its there. The mouthfeel was slightly coating - almost cream-like - but I don't mind. I paired it with a home-made okra and tomato stew that had 2 chilis in it. It was a great yin to the spicy yang. Its slightly sweet, but the bretty funk keeps the sweetness to a minimum.

You cannot taste the 10% alcohol in here. Well hidden.

If you're looking for Saison Dupont, then no, this is not in the same family. Its funkier, fruitier, yeastier but downright delicious. We really enjoyed this drink and hope to stumble on it again.

Aroma- light, mostly a sweet aroma from what I would guess is caramunich, a lightly grassy note, brett is definately there but not overwhelming...all barnyard in character, not all that appealing really

Overall - pretty much a straight brett beer, interesting, but probably not one I'll be returning too without a cheese pairing or something, might be good at a holiday meal, would be fun to cellar and see what esle the brett does

The corks comes out with a nice pop from the nicely labeled bottle. Pours from the 750 a deep dark dirty brown, nearly black with a big fluffly two finger tan head sitting nicely on top. Opaque in my tulip glass. Aromas bring an array of spices with hints of cinammon, clove, wet wood (oak?) and grassy, mossy notes. Dark fruits mesh with a slightly sour funk. Fairly complex...my nose keeps coming back for more.

First sip brings an interesting mix of roastiness along with some notes of cocoa, cloves, molasses, cinammon, pine, cracked pepper....complex! There's a nice slightly sour yeasty funkiness that hits on the way down. Definetly some brett at work here. A bit of smokiness and some horse blanket. Sour fruit in the mix as well. Leaves a warm spiciness in my mouth after each sip. Alcohol is well hidden...quite an interesting take on the saison here.

Mouthfeel is has a light, creamy body with full, explosive carbonation that erupts on the palate. Carbonation gets to be a bit much for me. This is an extremely tasty and challenging brew. There's alot going on here and it keeps your tastebuds guessing. I will definetly enjoy the rest of the bottle and will look forward to this again next winter. Fantome has impressed me yet again with this one!

Large bottle, lightly chilled, corked and capped. Pours dark brown, cloudy, murky and mysterious. minimal head and minimal lacing that slides down the side of the glass.
Nose is richly complex, musty, earthy, juniper and minty evergreen.
medium bodied , strong sipper
Notes of herbs, pepper, gin, anise, mint. Interesting brew. Differant for a saison, almost crosses over to Strong dark ale territory. Love the style, love the brewery, love this complex, heady and subtly outrageous brew. Seek this one out and enjoy every sip

Dark brown with red hues, tan colored head with very good retention and lacing. In the aroma I got old grass clippings, green beans, some slight spice, and maybe a little fruitiness as it warmed. Same characteristics in the taste, except there was none of the fruitiness. Just wasn't good, would not seek this out.

T- Mulled wine, spice, clove on the nose. Twang and lemony funk in the middle. Some smoke and chocolate on the tail. Very subtle; I expected the flavors to be bigger. At first, I was disappointed that it wasn't as huge as, say, Saison Athene, but I'm glad that it was subdued as it was.

Pours hazy amber with a huge white head. The honey and coriander are up front inthe nose, as is the malt and yeast. Very spicy. The pepper gives it a spiciness that I haven't had before in a beer this sweet. The chocolate malt and the honey are very sweet, btu kept in check because of it. An underlying musty fruitiness is there throughout. There is just so much going on in this beer it makes it kind of hard to describe. I definitelty recommend this one.

Pours a murky dark caramel color, with a thick mocha-colored foamy head that falls to retain a thin frosting.
A lot going on in the nose; there's a funky tart smell along with a good deal of yeast and raisin.
Flavor is also funky at first; a sour spicy flavor, but that is then backed up by a great deal of a dark bready malt, giving me a slight chocolate or coffee-ish aftertaste with a touch of spice. I get a hint of the 10% ABV in the aftertaste too, but it's not overpowering.
Mouthfeel is nice; not too thick, a light active carbonation present. Good mouthfeel increases drinkability, unlike some other christmastime styles that possess a sticky, syrupy character IMO.

750ml bottle capped and corked. It pours a murky mud puddle brown, with a light caramel spot glowing near the bottom. The four-finger beige head is volcanoes up quite intensely, creating some foamy craters, but receds rather quickly.

The aroma is dominated by apple, toasty malt and yeast, and a flare of spices. The flavor is quite tart, the yeasts combining to deliver a strong presence of apple, pear, grapefruit, and strong doses of fruity sugar. Some ginger, light cinnamon, and other less defined spice elements also make appearances. The alcohol is merely a ghost on, flaring slightly on the finish.

It is light bodied. The tartness somewhat overwhelms the brew, which somewhat lacks in complexity and weight. I wish the malt was a bit more assertive. It is rather drinkable though, once geared toward the high sugar content. Solid but not spetacular.

pours out kind of a burnt orange/ light brown color, a huge billowy, off white head, takes up more than half the glass. very nice head retention with lots of sticky lacing. some cloudiness.

initially i get some lemony citrus, maybe a touch of cherry. as it opens a bit of musty funk comes out, kind of subdued. also some toasted malt, some yeasty esters as well, phenolic. hints of dark fruits.

bitter sweet toasted malts, plum, fig, grape, berries, a bit wine like. just the slightest hints of funk. it seems like a rich maltiness is kind of hidden by the low finishing gravity, seems a little dry as a result.

a pretty high amount of carbonation, prickly on the palate, and a very light feel for 10%. some tartness.

a pretty interesting beer, a real subdued funk that makes it pretty drinkable, especially for 10%. seeing as its my first beer from fantome, i must say i am a little let down, but i wasnt really expecting to be wowed considering the other reviews. not really something i would recommend but it was a nice change of pace for me.

One of the prettier Fantomes. A slightly hazed light copper or dark amber in color with a very persistent, large-bubbled light khaki head. Somewhat sticky lines of stick left down the glass. A pretty, darker saison.

Fairly nice aroma, though it also seems fairly standard for Fantome (which is a good thing). Wet, freshly cut grass, along with some faded dark fruit character, a bit of an earthy, outside barnyard yeast character, and some dry hay.

The flavor, unfortunately, does not follow the aroma. Highly bitter, lots of smoke, some plastic, lots of sharp cinnamon, and asphalt/drag strip are all present notes here. I don't know how else to describe the strange things I'm tasting. Though, perhaps there's a touch of dark fruit.

Medium bodied with fairly high carbonation, though there are strange, sandy, solid elements to this brew. Not good.

I'm not going to be able to get through much of this guy. Though to it's credit, this beer does look and smell nice!